My oldest son, Sean, turned 21 today. So today I celebrate his ascension to adulthood and mourn the loss of a damned good tax break.
I wish I had a really great picture to post here, but alas, Sean is one of those people who doesn't like to have his picture taken (pssst.... there's one back in one of the entries in July).
Sean has always been in a hurry. Always. He was born a month early and has been go-go ever since. We lived in White Plains, New York at the time and when my wife said it was "time," off we raced to the hospital. Only it wasn't time, it was too early. So the docs -- we had two great obstetricians -- did what they could to delay his delivery because they weren't sure he'd be fully developed.
So Carolie had to put up with contractions for something like three days. It was a, ummm, interesting time.
I remember the Cardinals and Dodgers were playing in the National League Divisional Series, so Carolie would sleep between contractions and I'd watch the game. But they had a fetal monitor going and it would also show a number that seemed to indicate a contraction was coming.
I thought it was a cool machine, and so a couple of times I'd notice the number on the machine going up, so I'd whack Carolie awake and say, "it says you're having a contraction." I only did that twice.
Eventually Sean was born at 4:36 (or was it 5:36 Eastern Time?). He was colicky and didn't like sleeping much and didn't like us sleeping much either, apparently. Then he had to go back to the hospital for jaundice. Tons of fun, and we thought we were -- as most new parents do -- the first people on the planet ever to have a baby.
We had lunch together today and tonight his friends are taking him out and I'm guessing they'll do some bar hopping because isn't that what you're supposed to do on your 21st birthday?
Alas, I don't want to know. He's an adult now. And I'm not supposed to worry.
Right.
Random observations from the empty nester.
About Me
- Bob Collins
- Bob worked for Minnesota Public Radio for 27 years, until his retirement in 2019. He now lives to give baseballs to kids as an usher at Target Field, works on an airplane he is building, and a camper he bought for Oshkosh.
1 comment:
Yes, that's what you're supposed to do. My parents thought I was safely off in Europe with the Concordia Choir (no drinking allowed!) Didn't quite turn out that way. We travelled from Vilnius to Warsaw that day and had just enough time after supper to sneak out to the bar. After a very brief meeting with the tour manager and tour guide (they weren't supposed to be drinking either so they left without a word) we got down to the business of tasting Polish beer. Quite a bit of it as I recall. One of my good friend leaned over in front of the famous wall from The Exorcist (yes it's in Warsaw) and puked his guts out. Oddly that kind of thing used to seem fun. I guess you learn lessons as you get older!
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